Persona 5: Take Your Score
by Wayne-Hendrix
Summary: Akira is bored in LeBlanc after taking Kaneshiro's heart. His friends are off doing other things. Luckily, Makoto Niijima needs a friend to beat the high scores at the local arcade. Together they win prizes- and not just stuffed animals. Shumako fic, Takes place in July.


_Persona 5. Take Your Score (A Shumako Story)_

**Akira Kurusu, also known as Joker decides to unwind and relax. Usually summer break is a time where friends hang out, unfortunately for Akira: that isn't the case as his friends were all busy. Ryuji was busy training so he can be a better runner since he was a former member of the track team. Yusuke was busy painting portraits to get out of his current slump after moving out of Madarame's home. Ann was modeling in Shibuya. All seemed grim for Akira, as he was going to bed early after working with Sojiro at LeBlanc: he gets a phone call from the student council president Makoto Niijima asking him to talk to her at the student council room at Shujin Academy.**

7/15 Saturday

Akira looks at his phone and sees a text from Makoto which reads: "Don't forget about coming to the student council room today Akira". Akira gets dressed, and then before he leaves: Morgana tells him something. _"Akira are you sure you want to go with Makoto today?"_ Morgana says to Akira, for most people, Morgana is a regular cat, but for the ones who's traveled to the Metaverse: Morgana can talk to them. _"Yeah, Makoto is apart of the team now, it wouldn't be right to not talk to her."_ Akira replies to the cat as Morgana sighs as he won't be able to see Ann today, his "lady friend".

_"Morgana, you know you don't have a chance with Ann right?"_ Akira continues as Morgana gets upset just a bit. _"Of course I have a chance with Lady Ann!" "Just you wait when I become human, I'll be so charming that everyone would want me!"_ Morgana starts to tell at Akira after his snide remark towards Morgana. _"Oh look at the time, I better get going to the Student council room, before Makoto finds and beats the crap out of me"_ Akira grabs the bag and Morgana climbs inside the bag and heads to Shujin Academy.

On the way there: Akira gets a text from Ryuji asking if he and the other Phantom Thieves wanted to go to Mementos for the day. "No, I have plans for today" Akira texted to Ryuji and he replied, "No problem dude, I'll help out my mom at home, enjoy your day". Eventually, he ended up getting texts from Ann, Yusuke, Mishima, and even Tae Takemi to do stuff for them, but Akira declined them all.

**Eventually, Akira makes it to Shujin Academy, along the way he runs into Makoto and they wave hi to each other as Makoto guides Akira into the Student Council room.**

_"Hello, Akira"_ Makoto says to Akira as they are sitting in the Student Council Room. _"What's up, Makoto? How have you been?"_ Akira replies to Makoto as she starts to play with her hair a bit.

_"Before we plan something out, I'd like to apologize,"_ Makoto says to Akira after he and the other Phantom Thieves told Makoto about his past. _"I didn't mean to be so abrasive with you because of some petty rumor about you being a troublemaker"_ Makoto continues with her apology.

_"It's alright Makoto, I bet you've had it tough also with being student council president and all"_ Akira says this to Makoto, and after hearing that: she remembers all the times students insulted her by calling her a robot, being called useless by her own older sister Sae Niijima, and being called a pushover by the Detective Prince, Goro Akechi. _"I know, Akira" "I had tunnel vision, only caring for what the adults and my sister wanted for me"_ Makoto says as she clenched her fists in anger. "Crap, she's going to lose it!" Morgana thought to himself after listening to Makoto.

_"Akira after unlocking my persona in that asshole Kaneshiro's palace, I said to myself: I won't let the adults tie me down anymore!" "I've had enough of the damn adults micromanaging my life!"_ Makoto hits the desk in a fit of rage. Akira thought to himself with a look of fear in his eyes: "I really, really should never piss Makoto off." "She might just kill me" After a couple of seconds to compose herself: Makoto asks Akira if there was anything else he wanted to say, he shook his head no.

_"So Makoto, what do you like to do for fun?"_ Akira asks the burgundy-eyed girl if she had any hobbies. _"Umm, I like to study, and read...that's probably it"_ Makoto deadpans as Akira realizes Makoto usually doesn't have any fun besides study every day. _"How are your studies, Akira?"_ Makoto asks him about his grades, mainly because Makoto might consider herself a perfectionist.

_"In the first-semester final exams, I was top of my class in terms of grades. The other students thought I cheated, but when I'm not doing Phantom Thief stuff: I diligently study until I fall asleep."_ Akira explained his meticulous study regimen, to Makoto, she slowly smiles at Akira after hearing about Akira's grades.

_"Well I'm at least glad you have your priorities in order"_ Makoto says this with a smile on her face. _"Well, it's always nice to wind down after a long day or work and studying."_ She adds as in Akira's mind, things are finally getting somewhere.

_"Akira, do you know anywhere we could go just so we can relax?"_ Makoto sees a sly grin on Akira's face after she asked about fun places to go to. _"Well, besides LeBlanc there's a Big Bang Burger if you wanted to go do the Big Bang Burger challenge"_ Akira suggests to Makoto. _"Damn it Akira, your starting to make me hungry!"_ Morgana grumbles in Akira's bag.

_"I would love to go, but I'm currently working on my aikido, and eating a giant burger might do more harm than good"_ Makoto declines Akira's offer, but he thinks of something else. _"What about the bathhouse, it's soo relaxing over there especially after a long day of Phantom Thief work."_ Makoto starts to blush after Akira suggested going to a bathhouse.

_"No way!" "Bathhouses are full of perverted old men!"_ Makoto feverishly declines, while this is happening, Morgana while still being hungry fantasizes about seeing Ann in a bathhouse. "Damn I'm running out of options here" Akira thought to himself, as he strokes his hair while thinking of something. Eventually, he comes up with something.

_"How about the arcade at Shibuya?"_ After Akira says this, Morgana finally after daydreaming about Ann, says_ "That's a great idea Akira!" "Hm, is Morgana here or something?"_ Makoto hears Morgana's voice even though she's been hearing him since they've been in the student council room, she even heard him fantasize over Ann. _"That sounds like some fun, we should go over there."_ Makoto agrees to go to the arcade with Akira.

_"Ryuji invited me to an arcade after we changed Kamoshida's heart, the first time I went: I freaking sucked! Especially in that gun game"_ Akira says this to Makoto, she starts to laugh playfully. _"I suppose Akira isn't good with video game guns like he is in the Metaverse"_ She says this as if to tease Akira, but it doesn't work as Akira just sits there.

_"So wanna go ahead and go to the arcade?"_ Akira quickly changes the subject, Makoto nods her head, yes and they leave Shujin Academy.

**On the way there, Akira passes by the jail door with Caroline sitting on top of the door.**

_"Hey inmate!"_ Caroline yells off the top of her lungs towards Akira. _"The master requests your services!"_ Caroline continues as she jumps off the door she was sitting on to approach Akira. _"Hey, could you tell Igor I'll go over there later, I'm kinda busy at the moment."_ Akira replies to the short blonde haired girl dressed in a prison wardens outfit.

_"Listen here inmate, I'm only doing this so you can complete this rehabilitation!" "If you're just going to ignore your rehabilitation, then by my guest!"_ Caroline scolds Akira for not doing as she says. _"For someone who looks half my age, you like to nag like some old lady, don't you?"_ Akira replies to Caroline, and after he says that: Caroline who is already angry, gets ticked off to the point she wants to kill Akira. _"Why you? You damned inmate, get over here right now!"_ Caroline starts to chase after Akira after insulting her. After seeing this: Akira whispers in Makoto's ear saying _"Let's run straight to the arcade just follow me"_ Makoto complies with Akira's wishes and runs to the arcade.

_"Damned inmate thinking he can say whatever he wants?" "I'll kill him!"_ Caroline while being distracted with her anger loses sight of Akira and Makoto, and she doesn't know where he went. "*sigh* Even with all of that, I kinda think he's a bit cute" Caroline thought to herself while starting to blush. _"Margret would kill me if I was slacking off!"_ After remembering her older sister Margaret's violent temper, Caroline rushes back to the Velvet Room door.

**After running with Akira from Caroline, both Makoto and Akira finally made it to the Shibuya arcade. in the arcade, it was a dark room illuminated with light from the arcade machines. Most of Shujin Academy's students play games here especially some female students which surprised Makoto a bit.**

As for the games: the range of games vary from different genres such as fighting games, driving games, shooting games, rhythm games like Tap Tap Fever, which is popular with the female Shujin students, and one arcade cabinet which caught Makoto's eyes was this game with the controllers as actual guns. _"Oh, Akira what game is that right there?"_ Makoto says as she points at the arcade game she was interested in. _"Oh, that game over there?"_ Akira says as he thinks of the name of the game Makoto wants to play. _"Oh that's Gun Strike, that's the game Ryuji and I played, we both sucked ass though,"_ Akira says the name of the game while remembering how badly he and Ryuji were at the game.

_"I wanna play it with you"_ Makoto with a smile on her face while still looking determined picks up the gun-like controller and passes the other to Akira. _"Sure, I'll play. We might suck but I don't care about that"_ Both Akira and Makoto put in 100 yen to start up the game. At first, Akira is doing a bit better since he's had "experience" in shooting shadows in the Metaverse. Makoto on the other hand...is struggling with shooting the enemies in the arcade screen.

_"Man this game is tough"_ Makoto says this as she and Akira try to play the game, _"Maybe shooting up shadows is easier than this"_ then Makoto whispers to Akira so they don't get exposed as the Phantom Thieves. _"Yeah, it is tough, but you gotta get the hang of it first" "Nice I shot three in a row!"_ Akira shows some excitement as he gets a high score at the game.

_"Aaahhh!" "What was that?"_ Makoto screams in fear as a zombie pops up out of nowhere to scare her. After Makoto screams out in fear, slowly a crowd of people shows up behind Akira and Makoto most likely laughing at them. Akira notices and nudges Makoto's shoulder to look behind her. _"Where'd all these people come from?"_ She says as she notices the group of people behind her and Akira. "They must have seen how good we were at the game" Akira replies to Makoto with a bit of sarcasm in his statement.

_"Akira, I don't think that's the appropriate time to say that!"_ Makoto yells at Akira, with Makoto slowly getting more and more embarrassed. _"Just calm down Makoto, If we stay calm, we could improve our accuracy"_ Akira suddenly changed into his joker persona and tells the panicked queen to calm down and relax_. "Your right Akira, let's finish this game!"_ Makoto with a look of determination continues to play Gun Strike with Akira after calming down a bit.

**Eventually, Akira and Makoto finish up playing Gun Strike and they ended up getting 500 tickets with their combined high score. Akira gets a giant panda plushie while Makoto waits at the door. Later on, they walk to the station.**

_"Man Akira, I had fun today, I really can't believe there are so many things people can do for fun"_ Makoto expresses her delight with Akira. _"It's no problem, it's always ok to wind down and relax after repetitive trips to the Metaverse over and over again"_ Akira says to Makoto as he gets something from his bag. _"Here you can have this panda I got at the arcade."_ As soon as Akira hands Makoto the plushie, she immediately recognizes it. _"B-Buchimaru-kun?"_ Makoto starts to blush after receiving a buchimaru-kun plushie. _"Buchimaru-kun is one of my favorite characters when I was a child!"_ Makoto says this as she hugs her new plushie. _"I think she likes the gift, Akira."_ Morgana says to Akira as he pops out of Akira's bag. Akira thought to himself "Yes!" as he sees Makoto loving her gift. _"Hey, umm Akira can I tell you something?"_ Makoto gets close to Akira, with her blush is still on her face. _"What is it?"_ Akira replies to the student council president. _"You know when Principal Kobayakawa wanted me to keep tabs on you, Ann, and Ryuji two months ago, I thought you were some kind of thug until I saw you for the first time: my heart started to flutter"_ Makoto slowly starts to confess her feelings.

_"I didn't think much about this at first until you saved me from Kaneshiro, That's when I-I um... thought that you were a really special kind of guy"_ Makoto continues as the blush on her face gets brighter and she starts to be a bit more nervous than usual. _"M-Makoto.." _Akira is confused about what's going on but he has an idea of what's going on. _"Akira Kurusu… I think I might have fallen for you…"_ Makoto confesses her feelings to Akira. Akira at first is a bit surprised, but as he looks into Makoto's eyes, he feels a slight warmth to her burgundy eyes.

_"Akira, could I hold on to you?" "I don't think I want to be anywhere else besides with you,"_ Makoto asks Akira as the butterflies in her stomach start to flutter even more than before. Akira nods his head and Makoto hugs Akira tightly, with tears starting to run down her cheeks. _"Akira, I...I... L-Love You…"_ Makoto says to Akira as he starts to think of something to say. _"M-Makoto, I-"_ Akira is interrupted by the warm touch of Makoto's lips onto his. They kiss some more as they embrace each other some more, while Morgana looks on in a rare break in character, Morgana stays silent and let the two Phantom Thieves have their moment together.

_"Akira"_ Makoto breaks off their kiss. _"Yeah?"_ Akira replies to Makoto. _"Let's keep this a secret from the others, ok?" "We don't want things to be awkward between us and the others,"_ Makoto suggests she and Akira keep their new relationship a secret from the other Phantom Thieves minus Morgana. _"I agree"_ Akira nods his head yes in response to Makoto's request. _"I think we should be getting back home"_ Both Akira and Makoto head to the nearest train station, while along the way, they hold each other's hand.

**_~I am now in a relationship with Makoto Niijima~_**

_-The End-_


End file.
